I’ve ceased with the pre-shift ritual of meditating in my parked truck along with a soothing piece of music. No more prayers to God en route to work asking for more patience, more humanity, more understanding. I have accepted the fact that it will be no different than any other night in the Emergency Department, no matter if I blare Yanni’s rancid piano etudes or make a promise to God to pass out my own body parts to the discharged patients as they leave. Nothing will change. I use to look forward to making a difference in someone’s life, helping a poor soul whose body has given out. Those moments are few and far between now. Instead, I resign myself to the fact that the next 12 hours will be spent pasting a fake smile on a tired body, going through the motions of caring, repeating ready-made lines of false concern and giving out medical advice that fall on deaf ears. I use to feel important in my role as Charge Nurse at a major ER of an inner-city charity hospital. Now, as I sit in my truck at 6:45 in the evening, gangster rap blaring, I send out a quick impromptu message to God….. “Please God, allow me the opportunity to be gainfully employed 12 hours from now.”

7:02 PM-

I receive a quick report of the clingons and leftovers who haven’t made it out of the department by change of shift and to no surprise to myself and the night crew, a few names are all too familiar and the reports of their latest “illness” easily recitable from memory. The usual apologies from the day crew for not getting them out before we arrived go unnoticed. A shrill screech from one of the psych beds startles no one. We all just look up from within the “safe” confines of the nursing station, confirm that our overweight security force is camped out beside the room, shake our heads briefly and go on about our business. We go through the ritual of taking our own baseline vital signs, popping a few Xanax and removing sharp objects from our pockets. Patient safety is important and we wouldn’t want to accidentally stab one of them repeatedly in the chest.

7:17 PM-

My primary job aside from direct patient care is triage. Initial interview, vital signs, brief medical history, current medical problem, current medications, height, weight etc etc. My first of 35 or so fits the typical profile of this or any other ER in the country. 40 year old, female, morbidly obese, diabetic, hypertensive, multiple psych meds, very little English, less common sense, no means to pay. She complains of the usual nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and generalized abdominal pain. She’s already spent thousands of dollars of other people’s money last week for the same complaint. She didn’t fill her scripts, didn’t follow up with her Gastroenterologist as requested and by no means was this 300 + lb, truffle hunting leech going to alter her diet one iota in order to prevent another attack of diverticulitis. Her idea of a “Clear Liquid Diet” was a bucket of chicken and bowl of menudo an hour prior to her arrival. So here she is, totally oblivious as to why she is still sick. Non-compliant with her meds, non-compliant with the discharge instructions, follow up or diet instructions, which included a bland, low-fat, liquid diet for a few days until she was able to tolerate semi-solid/or solid food.

She bitches profusely when she is not brought straight back and put into a bed, instead she is sent back out to the waiting area for a lengthy wait. We are full and busy with the truly “emergent” patients but she can’t seem to fathom this. She barrels through the exit door, into the waiting area calling me every name in the book (in Spanish) and swearing to never come back again. “PENDEJO!”, she mutters. Oh, she’ll be back.

“NEXT”!

7:31 PM-

My 3rd patient is a 23-year-old mother of 3, the oldest being 10. She has somehow mistaken our “EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT” for a pediatric clinic and wants her brood “checked out” because they feel “hot.” No temperature ever taken at home, no Tylenol or Motrin given before the decision was made to spend $1500.00 of other people’s money and to waste our time babysitting 3 snot-nosed, unkempt ankle-biters who are no more sicker than the man in the moon. I usher them one at a time onto a scale for weights and am not surprised that each is twice the size they should be at their particular ages. One, I have to pry finger foods and a “Big Gulp” from their obstinate little mitts prior to the weight so as not to inadvertently add 5 lbs to his already triple digit reading. The electronic scale beeps incessantly and reads, “ONE AT A TIME, PLEASE.”(Ok, not really) With all their vitals being normal they are ushered out into the waiting area where they eagerly pounce on the furniture and run around like the defensive line for the Attention Deficits.

I am verbally attacked by my obese belly pain lady, who has “been waiting for hours” (uh, how about 20 minutes). I instantly notice the “positive Cheetos sign” on her fingers and around her lips and remind her that the sickest are seen first and to have a seat. She tosses me a “Pincha Pendejo” and rumbles back to her seat. I sneak in a quick call to God asking that he makes sure she looks before she plops back down in her chair(s). I can hear the intercom announcer now, “CODE BLUE TRAUMA, ER WAITING ROOM.” I mentally picture the scenario of the code team spending the next hour removing baby Julio from the rectum of a 300-lb verbally abusive Hispanic woman.

“NEXT”!!

9:21 PM-

I’ve survived the dinner crowd with my job intact and make my way back to the treatment area to assist the rest of my team in the treatment of the patients who were lucky enough to make it back ahead of the non-emergent riff-raff. I make my way to the EMS radio station when I hear…..”Unit 842 code 2 patient report”….we have a 102 year old nursing home patient,….found unresponsive on the floor….no IV….she’s now awake, combative, confused, covered in stool, incontinent of urine, blah, blah, blah…” The report from the nursing home prior to her EMS transport reveals that this patient had a tendency to “dig out stool from her rectum when constipated.” “Oh, that’s just friggin lovely”

9:25 PM-

The waiting room intercom a buzz……”I beeen waiting for 10 hours, you pendejo…you piece of….” Click!

9:33 PM

Our lovely elderly finger painter arrives, covered in poop from head to toe. EMS personnel smirk as they wheel her by, updating us as to any changes en route. Nope, no changes, except that now she’s given up the fight and is again unresponsive and her breathing more shallow. In an instant her breathing stops and is immediately rushed to trauma 1 where CPR is initiated. “CODE BLUE ER-1, CODE BLUE ER-1.”

9:57 PM-

“Time of death, 9:55” is belted out by the code team leader. “She never stood a chance.” “It was her time.” “She had a long and good life.” Blah Blah Blah Blah. She had a horrendous death. Born covered in amniotic fluid, but certainly a proud moment for her parents one can be sure. She died, however, covered in shit, piss and bedsores. The nursing home where she spent her remaining days in agony and perpetual loneliness should be burned to the ground. No family, no attention, nowhere near as prominent and proud as she once was. Left to waste while the understaffed workers at Our Lady of the Perpetual Petri Dish took their extended breaks and pillaged through her personal belongings. A courtesy call to the nursing home is placed telling them that Mrs. Mullins will not be coming back and has been transferred to the ECU (Eternal Care Unit). I hear, “Whew, thank God…..CLICK.”

10:22 PM-

Our usually bevy of drug-seeking, bipolar, depressed, suicidal, Xanax, Vicodin, Demerol hounds arrive as scheduled with multiple and varied complaints of, migraine headaches, chronic back pain, stress, anxiety, fibromyalgia, blah, blah, blah….!

They are easy to spot, almost always familiar, with the same ole’ story. Most we know on a first name basis. They are all, coincidentally, allergic to the same medications; Tylenol, Motrin, Vistaril, Toradol, Aspirin or any other non narcotic or harmless placebo we’ve attempted to quell their “pain” with in the past. The only thing that works is “Demerol” and they must have a large supply of Vicodin in the form of a prescription when they leave. (Vicodin has Tylenol in it but apparently doesn’t cause a severe allergic reaction when mixed with euphoria,….go figure!)

Security is usually called, for to tell them “no drugs tonight” is just asking for a fight. $1000.00 later of other peoples money and they usually leave with their buzz on and their script for Vicodin. But usually not before asking for a “shot for the road” or additional scripts for anxiety (preferably Xanax) or sleep aids. 30 pills are often the number of pills given, depending on the frequency of the prescribed dose. This usually last a few days for the typical drug seeker and then they’ll usually return with more “pain” and a hungry monkey.

In the age when Doctors are sued for both under treating pain OR for prescribing too many narcotics and “getting them addicted”, we medical personal are caught up in the proverbial “catch 22”. More often than not I have been written up and on several occasions was at a point where my job was in jeopardy because I challenged their pathetic lies whenever these low-life drug addicts invaded our ER’s. Now I just shut up, shake my head and pray for an overdose.

11:12 PM

Waiting Room intercom is ringing off the wall. “…how long will I…….can you tell me where I am on the list……Donde esta su Doctor…….I can’t find my child……..the dingo ate my baby…..PINCHE PEDEJO, I BEEN HEER FER TWO DAYS AND MY ASS FEELS LIKE SOMEONE POURED SALSA RIGHT UP MY……….click.

Midnight in the garden of good (for nothings) and the evil (doers)-

After a flurry of non emergent triages, (sore toe, “the shakes”, anal abscess, foreign bodies in the nose, ears and stomach of a 2 year old, blah blah, blah) I call in an astute, well dressed, middle aged white male, who is walking quite gingerly and refusing to sit. Differential diagnoses race through my head, back pain, abdominal pain, rectal abscess,. or perhaps….no!….NO!……NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes!

The story goes (and it is a common one) that he and the Mrs. were “experimenting” in bed (against his wishes, no doubt) when a vibrator was jammed in his keester and is now painfully out of reach. Given the nature of the “injury” he is whisked back to a private room, placed on his side, lubed up like a 57 Chevy, and a valiant effort is made to retrieve the 12 inch “perpetrator with ribs” from his large bowel. All to no avail. At one point we had a hold of the foreign body (actually, it was made in the US) but the colon wouldn’t let go of it’s new found cylindrical friend. We tugged, twisted, yanked, pulled, all efforts proving futile. Finally the physician stopped, exhausted from the tug-o-war match, with the forceps, commonly used to removed big headed babies, protruding from the prominent lawyers butt, he made the decision to call in the surgical team. All efforts to remain professional, however, fell by the wayside when, during a moment of silence, a low buzz was detected in the room. Had the blood pressure cuff inflated? Were the incandescent lights buzzing? Was the TV on?

No, no and no. We looked at the forceps and noticed they were vibrating uncontrollably, instantly realizing at that point that this thing was STILL ON. A mad rush by the scant crew to the exit door of the private room was attempted as to not embarrass this local professional with our boisterous laughter. No dice.

We will all eventually be written up and apologies made for our “unprofessionalism and disregard for the patient’s privacy and mental well being”.

That’s ok. We needed that to preserve our own mental well being. Still proving that laughter is still the best medicine.

1:02 AM

Ten triages later and its dinner time for this mentally worn crew. We retrieve our food, locate it to the middle of the nursing station and we eat. Not all at once, mind you but usually a bite at a time. Eat a French fry, go wipe an ass in ER-1, a bite of a Big Mac, go clean up cherry cool-aid flavored vomit in ER-4, a sip of Dr Pepper, then physically restrain a combative Scitzo-effective patient. By 2:15 we have polished off the last bite of a hardened burger, ate our last stale French fry and sucked down the last gulp of our watered-down soda. A soda that is now as warm as fresh urine and food that is as cold as Mrs. Mullins in ER13.

2:30 AM-

Ahhh, my favorite time during the entire shift is upon us. The “Last Call at the local bar crowd” (LCLBC) start to pour in to the front entrance, while EMS brings the ones who got the shit kicked out of them through the back ambulance entrance. “Santa Rosa, this is unit 842….we are coming code 2 trauma with a 19 year old male…..closed head injury….intoxicated…combative….soiled….bloody…..no insurance…..blah, blah,blah.

The same ole song and dance spews from this patients bloodied spout as he is wheeled into Trauma-2……”I was just minding my own business”……”I only had two beers”…..”I don’t do drugs”….. “Can I get something to eat?” “RAALLLLLLPHHH!” “Housekeeping to ER Trauma-2, Housekeeping….”

2:31 AM-

“Dear Lord, If ANYONE can make time travel possible, it’s you, God.” “Pleeeese, send me forward to 7 AM.

3:03 AM-

Patient waiting room intercom is screaming………..”CLICK”…….”BANG, BANG, BANG”.

3:15 AM-

I am ushered into the staff break room for a “time out” and reminded by the night supervisor that the cost of the intercom will be deducted from my paycheck.

4:18 AM-

Our portly female beast of a woman is finally ushered back to a room but not before mumbling under her breath as she brushes past me, “Pendejo”! A major “abdominal work-up” is ordered. 40 lab tests, urine tests, stool cultures, abdominal x-rays, Cat Scans, blah, blah, blah……She’s placed in a gown that looks like curtains stolen from the Grand Ole Opry, and given the reminder “Opening to the back, please,” tossed in for good measure. (“Lord, give me the strength to………..Oh forget it, never mind”)

She’s given a URINE cup as she bounces her way to the bathroom. She fills it with STOOL. “Housekeeping to ER, STAT.”

Can’t find a blood pressure cuff large enough so we must take a chance at an erroneous reading by placing it around her calf or forearm. The hydraulic bed grunts and groans with ever twitch and shift from this woman of substances. She continues to bitch and moan and will eventually file a complaint with (in) human resources, I am sure. Multiple attempts at IV access finally yields a vein that hasn’t been choked off by the mass of arm fat and IV fluids are initiated. After a quick assessment by the ER physician she is off to radiology, with a little 120 lb tech pushing 600 lbs of patient and bed up to the 3rd floor for a series of $3000.00 radiologic exams. X-rays that were done just last week and that she has no intention or means to pay for. It would have been easier (and cheaper) had she driven to Sea World instead. Certainly more accommodating for a woman of her stature.

5:57 AM-

Multiple early morning stragglers are triaged and sent to wait. The foul odor of urine, poop, BO, booze, vomit, etc, permeates the air. “One Hour Left”, I thought. We get all the results of the voluptuous Ms. Hinojosa’s tests back and surprise, surprise….”Diverticulitis.” Perhaps this time she will be compliant with her meds, compliant with her diet, compliant with her follow up, compliant with life. “Fat chance,”I thought. (Pun intended).

Her IV is removed and a half gallon of fat globules ooze from the harpoon hole. She is hoisted off the bed with the help of several departments within the hospital; half of who will call in sick tomorrow with severe back spasms. The battered stretcher which now resembles a low-rider after a major accident is towed to the back for repair. Ms Hinojosa is discharged but not before requesting a breakfast tray. Request denied.

Off she goes to the local “Taco Cabana” for a flurry of assorted breakfast tacos and a bowl of menudo. “She you in a few days, Ms Hinojosa.”

“Pinche Pendejo!”

6:47 AM-

The dismal faces of the morning crew are evident as they reluctantly make there way in, some still in mid-prayer, the newer nurses with walkman’s on, listening to ocean waves or cricket noises saturated with Muzac. A quick report is given to the mentally exhausted night crew and apologies made for the missing bed in ER 3 and the dead body in ER-12.

7:07 AM-

Each member of the night crew, each with a phone in hand, are awaiting the instant the clock strikes 7:08 where, with lightning speed, a flurry of buttons will be punched to clock out, ending another horrendous but typical night in the ER.

7:47 AM-

I pull up to my apartment and sit quietly in my truck. I recall the night’s events and wonder if I had made any critical errors in care or judgment. I mentally prepare for the answers to the complaints made the night before by this unique ER culture of ignorant, non-compliant, abusive, poor, helpless, drugged-up, psychotic, dregs of society.

I say a prayer for Mrs. Mullins and her family and curse all those who’ve abused the system in the last 12 hours, spending thousands upon thousands of dollars of other people’s money but contributing nothing to society what-so-ever. Once I deem that I will have a job come 6:45 that evening, I ease my tired body and shattered mind out of my vehicle, meander up to my apartment and into bed, hungry, frustrated, angry. Where I will fight the demons for an hour or so until I am able to fall asleep. I don’t. I am woken by a dream whereby the ER staff are all patients in the waiting room on a busy night. I am called into the back where a 500-lb female nurse is ripping my clothes off with one hand and swinging a 6 foot rectal scope in the other like a pair of numchucks in a Bruce Lee movie. The alarm clock sounds and I immediately spring up and grab my ass, praying that a 6-foot proctoscope isn’t dangling precariously from it. It’s not. I breathe a sigh of relief and make my way to the shower and into another fateful night of chaos and mayhem.

6:43 PM-

I pull up to the ER, park my truck and sit. I clip on my name badge, giggle as I read our “Mission statement” tattooed on the back. “To extend the healing ministry of Christ,” it reads, and I take a minute to ponder that statement. I smile, acknowledge it’s powerful and profound meaning and bow my head to pray.

“Lord, today, give me your divine power to accept my responsibilities within this ministry. I pray that…”

Just then a beat up delta 88 rolls by on two wheels, with a definite lean to one side. I watch as they take up two parking spaces in the “staff” lot and out pops Ms Hinojosa. I cringe. She leaves a trail of urped-up fajita and menudo through the patient parking lot, into the physicians parking area, towards the ER entrance. Anger churns inside me and I hang my head, looking down at my badge and the mission statement on the back. I try desperately to find the peace and pride I felt just 2 minutes earlier and I resume my prayer……”Lord,….I just…….If you could only find it in your heart to…………OH FORGET IT!!!!!……. NEVER MIND.”

Source by Michael Wayne Brown

Thinking of remodeling or renovating? Make sure you do not ‘improve’ your home out of the neighborhood. It is okay to do this if you want to stay living in it, but if you are making improvements to sell your home at a higher value – beware!

Realtors accept that there is a ceiling in realty prices, no matter which location you live in. The catch-phrase ‘location, location, location’ is not just for fun; every location has a ‘bottom price and a top price’. If you live in a top location area – the sky is the limit – but sadly most of us do not!

If you are living in a lower price area and put in a swimming pool and an outdoor kitchen before you list your house, it will most certainly bring the buyers to your home. It will no doubt bring in offers for your home and all this is good news.

However, while you will be able to sell at the top neighborhood price, the sale price may not reflect the total cost of your improvements.

In order to avoid this error of judgment, ask an expert in the field of neighborhood prices – your local realtor! He or she will be happy to come and advise you on which specific improvements may potentially add value to your specific home in your specific neighborhood.

This is the type of advice that you want if you are improving solely to make money. Many home improvements have been ‘analyzed’ to see which ones give the best returns on their initial outlay.

For instance, in the ‘Money Magazine’ they recommend adding a quality deck to bulk up the potential square footage of your property. It should be no larger than the one third the size of your home.

A deck can be transformed into a luxury class fairly inexpensively – outdoor lighting around the deck area, waterproof speakers and an entry via French doors will help. If you use ‘cute’ strings of outdoor lighting and decorate with potted trees, the deck will have an appealing ambiance.

A report from HomeGain.com suggests that the outlay for updating a kitchen can add double of the initial cost of the improvement to the value of your home. If you have a closet that you can turn into a pantry – go for it!

The pantry is a sought after feature in a kitchen at the moment. Islands are another wished-for feature, although preferably with a secondary function such as a sink or breakfast bar stools.

Once again, keep a ceiling on your prices. If your neighborhood is for the average family, it is not worth investing thousands of dollars in top of the line appliances if this will price your home out of the local market. The report suggests that looks and newness are the most important factors.

Source by Carol P Freyer

To make more money with what you are already offering, consider different strategies to make it easier for people to purchase your services/products. Restructuring your pricing and packaging creates more options for your customers.

Here are some examples:

1) Bundle ’em. Offer your services in monthly increments. Instead of working with people on a session-by-session basis, offer a bundle of services. For instance, a personal trainer can offer sets of workouts for 3 months, 6 months, or a year. Add value by including a workbook to chart workout progress. You can also create levels of advancement to create more options for clients. Consider a silver, gold, and platinum program. Each level is a higher price and offers more value to your clients.

If you offer products, consider other ways to bundle things. For instance, a garden shop can put together a spring garden package that includes flower bulbs, a trowel, wildflower seeds, and gardeners’ gloves. A restaurant could start packaging their sauces and selling them to customers to take home. A life coach could put together a notebook and CD set to sell online.

2) Change product usage. Railroad ties are now used as decorative items for landscaping. I’ve also noticed that antique stores are offering faucets as coat hangers. And how about those stretchy bands that people use for workouts?

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda has this strategy dialed in. The product was originally for baking. On their website, the company also suggests you use baking soda for brushing your teeth, deodorizing your dog, extinguishing fires, cleansing your hands, rinsing your mouth, and for children’s crafts. As a result, a simple product that might only be purchased once in a while has been transformed into a must-have product.

3) Change your pricing options. Offer your customers an option of paying in installments. Give a discount if customers buy a service early or in bulk. Offer a credit card option or allow people to buy online. Give people coupons, discounts, frequent-buyer rewards, or loyal-customer rebates.

4) Offer it in a new way. A book or a workshop can be turned into a CD program. Certain prospects may not have time to read a book or attend a workshop; but with your new packaging option, they can listen to your program during their commute or at the gym on their mp3 player. A used furniture store could paint some of its chairs or old frames in creative colors and sell them as functional art.

5) “Plus” it. There is a term called “plussing” that comes from Walt Disney’s constant efforts to continually make a good idea even better. An example of this is adding a scavenger hunt game to the waiting area of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland Park – now even the pre-ride portion is fun. Hallmark Cards also uses the concept of plussing. When their creative team develops a new product idea, they invite all of their other divisions to follow the concept and spin off additional new products.

ACTION STEP: Take a look at your packaging and pricing. What works well right now but can be plussed or made better? How can your services or products be bundled? What pricing options can you add? How can your products/services be made to be even more remarkable? By providing a variety of options to customers, you will make more sales.

Source by Wendy Maynard

1. Long Island’s Aviation Seed

The aviation seed planted on Long Island’s Hempstead Plains in 1909, when Glenn Curtiss had first flown above it in his Golden Flyer biplane, had sprouted and grown over a six-decade period until it had ultimately connected its own soil with that of its moon.

Its many aerospace sights, depicting its general aviation, commercial, military, and space branches, and geographically spread between Garden City and Calverton, recount this journey.

2. Cradle of Aviation Museum

The Cradle of Aviation Museum, located on Museum Row in Garden City near the Coliseum, Nassau Community College, and Hofstra University, tells most of Long Island’s aerospace story.

Tracing its origin to 1979, when then-County Executive Francis T. Purcell designated funds to restore two aircraft hangars at former Mitchel Field, it displayed several dozen aircraft until it closed for renovation in 1995. The 130,000-square-foot, $40 million facility, opening on the 75th anniversary of Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in 2002, showcases more than 70 air- and spacecraft, 11 of which are one-of-a-kind designs, associated with or constructed on Long Island and uncovered during a 20-year search which had stretched from the bottom of Lake Michigan to Guadalcanal. They had then been restored and preserved by retired airline and defense aircraft manufacturer volunteers who collectively contributed some 650,000 man-hours to the project. The result had been Long Island’s largest, year-round, educational, recreational, and cultural institution.

According to New York State Governor George E. Pataki, museum visitors “can see the brief span of years that brought Long Island from hosting the fragile biplanes of 1911 to building the Lunar Module that took mankind to the moon in the sixties. Through these displays, the Cradle becomes a powerful mirror that reflects our own skills, intellect, and ability to conquer time and space and pays tribute to American innovation and pioneering spirit.”

The Cradle of Aviation Museum, dominated by its impressive, four-story, glass atrium Reckson Center, greets visitors with a ceiling-suspended Grumman F-11A Tiger supersonic fighter in Blue Angels livery and a 1929 Fleet 2 biplane trainer, symbolically representing the soaring ascent of Long Island’s aviation heritage.

The main exhibits, located in eight galleries in the two restored Army Air Corps Hangars 3 and 4 which still bear the words “Mitchel Field. Elev 90 Feet” on their facades, and now designated the Donald Everett Axinn Air and Space Hall, are accessed by a second floor skywalk at whose entrance a third ceiling-suspended replica of a 1922 Sperry Messenger biplane designed by the Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company of Farmingdale hangs.

According to the skywalk’s plaque, “Long Island has been at the forefront of American’s aviation and space adventure for the past one hundred years…It all started here on Long Island’s Hempstead Plains.”

A one-flight descent leads to the first of the museum’s galleries, “Dream of Wings.” Depicting the triumph of flight with lighter-than-air craft, it demonstrates how balloon, kite, glider, and airship experimentations turned the dream of flight into reality and led to its heavier-than-air successors, displaying aerostatic lift generation, Alexander Graham Bell’s tetrahedral kite, an Otto Lilienthal glider, and a 1906 Timmons kite built in Queens, the museum’s oldest flying exhibit. A 20-hp Glenn Curtiss airship engine, designed two years later, and a Mineola Bike Shop, demonstrating, in the Wright Brothers’ vein, the technology transfer from the bicycle to the aircraft with propellers and wings, round out the exhibits.

The “Hempstead Plains” gallery, the next encountered, represents a 1910 air meet. Amid recordings of turning propellers and accelerating aircraft, a collection of early designs graces the grass-carpeted field and includes an original Bleriot XI of 1909, the world’s fourth-oldest, still-operational airframe; a spruce-and-bamboo replica of Glenn Curtiss’s Golden Flyer, the first heavier-than-air airplane to fly over Long Island; a replica of a Wright Brothers’ Vin Fiz; a Hanriot monoplane; a Farman biplane, a 1911 Anzani engine; and a 1913 Studebaker “motor car.”

During World War I, as evidenced by the succeeding gallery, the triumph of flight was transferred into the destruction of man, as the airplane assumed the reciprocal role of a weapon, and Long Island had become the center of military aircraft design, testing, and production during this time. On display is the first airplane acquired by Charles Lindbergh, a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny purchased in 1923 for $500; along with a 1918 Breese Penguin trainer, the only one of the 250 originally produced remaining; an airworthy Thomas-Morse S4C Scout biplane with its original Marlin machine gun; and the F. Trubee Davison World War One wooden hangar, which sports the ribbed, uncovered airframe of a Curtiss Jenny with its engine, propeller, and fuel tank; and a 160-hp Gnome Monosoupope, 1916 engine from France.

During the Golden Age of Aviation, which spanned the 20-year period from 1919 to 1938, aviation matured, evolving from a dangerous sport to a viable commercial industry. The motley collection of aircraft in this gallery includes the sister ship to the original Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis and used during the filming of the epic tale; an Aircraft Engineering Corporation “Ace,” which became America’s first sport plane; a replica of a Curtiss/Sperry Aerial Torpedo; a 1932 Grumman F3F-2 Navy Scout fighter; a Brunner Winkle Model A Byrd biplane built in Glendale, Queens; an American Aeronautical Corporation/Savoia Marchetti S-56 amphibian made in Port Washington; and a Grumman G-21 Goose in blue, Pan American Airways System livery.

During World War II, as reflected by its respective gallery, the aircraft produced by Repubic and Grumman had been crucial to US victory, and within the six-year period from 1939 to 1945 depicted, some 45,000 airframes had rolled off the production line. On display are a powerless Waco CG-4 Troop Glider, which had been used to deliver soldiers behind enemy lines; a Republic P-47N Thunderbolt; a Grumman F6F Hellcat, a Grumman TBM Avenger, a Grumman F6F Hellcat, a Douglas C-47 cockpit and nose section, and the Sperry Type A-2 lower gun turret which had protected the undersides of B-17 and B-24 long-range bombers.

The pure-jet engine, as evidenced by the Jet Age Gallery, revolutionized military aviation by endowing aircraft with unprecedented speed, range, maneuverability, and attack capability, and Grumman Aircraft Corporation had been instrumental in this development, having designed more than 40 civilian and military types which totaled some 33,000 airframes and provided employment for 200,000 Long Island residents. Its military aircraft, particularly, had played crucial roles in numerous conflicts, including those in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. On display are several Grumman designs, inclusive of an E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning/command-and-control aircraft, an F9F-7 Cougar, the forward fuselage of an F-14 Tomcat, and an A-6 Intruder cockpit simulator, while Republic Aviation is represented by an F-84B Thunderjet, an F-105B supersonic fighter, and an A-10A Thunderbolt cockpit section. A Boeing 727 nose and cockpit section and a Westinghouse J-34 turbine engine round out the exhibits.

The “Contemporary Aviation” gallery features air traffic control radar screens which emphasize the congested JFK, La Guardia, and Newark airport triplex, along with their secondary airports of Long Island MacArthur and Westchester County’s White Plains, and Farmingdale’s Republic Airport, the states’ busiest general aviation/reliever field.

The “Exploring Space” gallery, the last of the eight, depicts the dramatic transition from atmospheric flight to vacuumless space and emphasizes Long Island’s rich contribution to this aerospace sector. Its exhibits include a Goddard A-series rocket; a Grumman orbiting astronomical observatory; a Grumman echo adapter; a life-size model of the Sputnik satellite which had been presented by the Soviet Union and whose original hardware had launched the Space Race; a Grumman Rigel ramjet missile from 1953; a Grumman Lunar Module simulator; and a Rockwell Command Module which had been used during a 25,000-mph earth reentry test in 1966 prior to the manned Apollo flights.

A “Clean Room,” representing the environment in which all Lunar Modules had been hand-made, leads to the gallery’s-and the museum’s-most precious exhibit, an actual, 22.9-foot-high, gold foil-covered LM-13, the thirteenth and last Lunar Module built, dramatically lit with its legs nestled on a simulated moonscape. Designated an historic mechanical landmark, the Lunar Module had been the first-and thus far, only-spacecraft to have ever transported human beings from earth to another planet or its moons.

The Museum Annex Jet Gallery, which shares facilities with the Long Island Firefighter’s Museum, features a Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, the forward fuselage of a Grumman F-14A, a full F-14A Tomcat airframe, a Grumman A-6F Intruder, and the forward nose section and cockpit of an El Al Boeing 707.

Other museum facilities include the seven-story-high, 300-seat, 76-foot-wide Leroy R. and Rose W. Grumman IMAX Theater, New York state’s largest domed venue and Long Island’s only IMAX screen; the Martian-themed Red Planet Café, which displays a 1961 Grumman “Molab” Mobile Lunar Laboratory designed for lunar surface travel, habitation, and testing; a balcony-located Aerospace Honor Roll; and the Mitchel Field Outpost gift and bookstore.

The Cradle of Aviation Museum is a world-class facility which preserves, showcases, and interprets Long Island’s rich aerospace heritage.

3. American Airpower Museum

The American Airpower Museum, located at Farmingdale’s Republic Airport, oozes with history. It is housed in an historic hangar, where historic World War II aircraft had been built, and these had then been tested at this historic airfield.

Republic Airport itself, founded in 1928 as Fairchild Flying Field when Sherman Fairchild’s existing facility had become too small to support continued FC-2 and Model 71 production, had passed the torch to Grumman for a five-year period, from 1932 to 1937, when the Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Manufacturing Company itself had relocated to Maryland.

Seversky, establishing its presence on the field in 1935, continued its tradition of aircraft building and testing, redesignating itself “Republic Aviation” and considerably expanding its facilities with three new hangars, a control tower, and a longer runway. A major supplier of military designs, it churned out more than 9,000 P-47 Thunderbolts during the Second World War and 800 F-105 Thunderchiefs during the Vietnam conflict.

After acquiring the airport in 1965, Fairchild-Hiller sold it to Farmingdale Corporation, which turned it into a public facility the following year, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), purchasing it for $25 million in 1969, renamed it Republic Airport, lengthening existing Runway 14-32, constructing a 100-foot FAA control tower, and building a small passenger terminal.

The 526-acre general aviation/reliever airport, whose ownership once again changed to the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) in April of 1983, exerts some $139 million of economic impact on Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Its 546 based and transient aircraft record 190,723 annual movements, of which 93 percent encompass general aviation, six percent air taxi, and one percent military, in a full spectrum of aircraft types, including single-engine, multi-engine, piston, turboprop, pure-jet, and rotary wing, and these utilize its two runways: 5,516-foot Runway 1-19 and 6,827-foot Runway 14-32. As New York’s third largest airport in terms of take offs and landings after JFK and La Guardia, and its largest general aviation field, it handled 1,634 enplanements, mostly due to charter flight activity, in 2005.

Amidst this atmosphere, off of New Highway, is the American Airpower Museum. Hangar 3, its location, had been completed in 1927, along with other structures at a $500,000 cost and had served as the incubation point of some 9,000 Republic P-47 Thunderbolts during the Second World War. As a result, it had once been considered part of the “arsenal of democracy.” The museum, launched after a $250,000 grant from Governor George E. Pataki and dedicated during the airport’s annual Pearl Harbor Day Commemorative Service in 2000, had been built to serve as a living tribute to Long Island’s veteran population by honoring the past with the present, and to create a regional tourist destination, along with the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

Colonel Francis Gabreski, who scored most of his World War II victories in Republic P-47s, had been the highest ranking ace on Long Island and had initially served as the museum’s honorary commander.

Complementing the static displays at the Cradle of Aviation Museum itself, the American Airpower Museum features the sights, sounds, and experiences of operational World War II fighters and bombers, the first time in 54 years that the New York metropolitan area can boast of such an accomplishment. As the Williamsburg of military aviation, the facility accurately proclaims its mission as “where history flies.”

Its varied collection of pristinely restored aircraft encompass trainers, fighters, carrier-based Navy, ocean reconnaissance, bombers, and post-World War II jet types.

The North American T-6 Texan, for instance, first flew in 1935 and was one of the most widely used advanced fighter pilot trainers during the war.

Of the fighters, the Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk, which also first flew that year, attains 363-mph speeds and currently wears Flying Tiger livery. No aircraft could be more at home in the American Airpower Museum’s Hangar 3, however, than the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the very design which was assembled here in the thousands. First taking to the skies from the runway only yards away in 1940, it was the largest, heaviest, single-engine, single-pilot piston fighter ever produced, attaining 467-mph speeds. The P-51 Mustang, whose maximum speed had been 30 mph lower than the Thunderbolt’s, flew high-altitude escort missions of B-17 and B-24 long-range bombers, shooting down more enemy aircraft than any other World War II European theater fighter.

Of the Navy aircraft, the Grumman TBM Avenger, a carrier-based torpedo bomber, had hunted German U-boats off the coast of Long Island, while the Vought FG-1D Corsair had been used by both the Navy and the Marines and had achieved 446-mph airspeeds.

The Consolidated PBY Catalina, a high-wing, amphibious ocean reconnaissance aircraft flown by a crew of eight, searched for enemy submarines. It had a 2,545-mile range, a 15,748-foot service ceiling, and a 178-mph speed.

The museum’s twin-engined, medium-range North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, designated “Miss Hap,” had been General Hap Arnold’s personal aircraft, while the type in general had been made famous by the Doolittle Raid.

The collection also includes several jet fighters. The L-39 Albatross, for example, is a 570-mph Soviet trainer which first flew in 1968 and is still in service with 16 countries. The Republic F-84 Thunderjet, one of the first pure-jet fighters, attained 620-mph speeds and served from 1948 to the Korean War. The RF-84 Thunderflash, also designed by Republic, is a 720-mph photoreconnaissance aircraft with horizon-to-horizon photograph capability, and served between 1953 and 1971. The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, a supersonic fighter and attack bomber, had been most extensively deployed in Vietnam in its F-105D guise, carrying more than 12,000 pounds of ordnance and achieving 1,390-mph speeds. It served for a quarter of a century, from 1955 to 1980. The General Dynamics F-111, a supersonic, March 1.2, variable-geometry strike aircraft, first flew in 1967, and had seen service in Vietnam, Libya, and Iraq.

Aside from the aircraft themselves, there are nose and cockpit sections, including those of a Fairchild-Republic A-10, a Mig-21, a Beech 18/C-45, and a Douglas C-47, as well as engines, such as a General Electric J-47 and an Allison V-1710.

World War II’s aviation story is also told by means of films, period scenes and dioramas, an extensive model and memorabilia collection, vintage vehicles, a “Ready Room,” a “Briefing Room,” a “Canteen,” a gift shop, and era-related music.

Tours are periodically provided to the historic, five-story, 1943 control tower located in Hangar 4. The view from the cab, amid vintage radio and radar equipment overlooking Republic airport’s two runways, provides insight into the controllers’ functions, which often included coordinating vectors from P-47s, A-10s, F-84s, and F-105s enroute to the region’s dense air base network comprised of Zahns Airport, then virtually across the road, Grumman in Bethpage, Mitchel Field in Garden City, the Floyd Bennett Field Naval Air Station in Brooklyn, and the Vought factory across Long Island Sound in Connecticut, a network emphasizing Long Island’s early nucleic role in aviation.

Because the American Airpower Museum’s collection is predominantly operational, several flight experiences are offered.

Its own, and signature, opportunity, aboard a Douglas C-47 Skytrain which had last been used by the Israeli Air Force, simulates the famed, D-Day allied invasion of Normandy during the early-morning hours of June 6, 1944.

After donning paratrooper uniforms, helmets, and modified parachutes in the Ready Room, would-be jumpers move to the Briefing Room, where, amid wooden benches and period maps, the pending mission is detailed, along with the necessary regrouping maneuver behind French hedgerows after parachuting to the ground. French francs are distributed.

The cohesive, identically clad team now climbs aboard the twin-engined, olive-green C-47, which is configured with wooden side benches and actually partook of Normandy operations.

During a recent summer flight, the aircraft taxied out to Republic Airport’s Runway 1 and initiated its piston engine-propelled acceleration roll, raising its tailwheel and surrendering to the flawlessly blue sky while retracting its undercarriage.

Climbing to 1,200 feet and maintaining a 125-mph airspeed, the Douglas twin straddled Long Island’s south shore off of Jones Beach, which simulated the similar sands of Normandy.

Upon reaching the designated “drop zone,” the jumpmaster yelled, “Stand up! Check equipment! Hook up!” and the paratroopers connected their lines to the aircraft in preparation for imminent bailout.

Parachute jumping procedures were drilled and the actual, 1944 event was recounted. Regrettably, the realism necessarily had to end there.

Nevertheless, after relanding, the sensation of the D-Day disconnection during the real jump was recreated as the temporary troopers climbed out the aft, left hatch, their Velcro-attached lines separating with gentle tares, a symbolic disconnection from machine before being gravity-induced into an exponentially accelerating tumble to French soil until the unraveling surfaces of their parachutes blossomed into arresting airfoils.

Before removing uniforms, passengers are instructed to reach into their pockets to retrieve a card which reveals the identity of their historical double-or that paratrooper they had represented during the simulated mission. The paratrooper, however, had made the actual jump. And the card indicates whether he had lived or died as a result of it.

Other than the American Airpower Museum’s own C-47 flight experience, vintage aircraft static displays and aerial opportunities are scheduled during holidays and special occasions, such as during Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, historical anniversaries, and the annual Labor Day Flight of Aces weekend, the latter created to encourage young people to write about the virtues, victories, and achievements of a World War II-age friend or relative. The winning composition is awarded a bomber flight experience. Aircraft have included the MATS C-121 Constellation; the Berlin Airlift “Spirit of Freedom” C-54; the B-17 Flying Fortress; the B-24 Liberator; the B-25 Mitchell; and the PT-17 Stearman, the last four of which were operated by the Collings Foundation.

A post-museum visit dinner at the 56th Fighter Group Restaurant located on the Route 110 side of Republic Airport, although not affiliated with the museum itself, both complements and completes a World War II living history day. Resembling a 1940 wartime English farmhouse, it further transports the diner to this era with its “Officer’s Mess” entry; rustic, timbered ceilings; fireplace-adorned dining rooms; World War II-related photographs, memorabilia, and propellers; simulated, bombed-out patio; Big Band music; and views of replica P-40, P-47, and Corsair aircraft. The steak and seafood menu is noted for its signature beer-cheese soup.

The American Airpower Museum is a living aviation time portal to World War II and Long Island’s invaluable contribution to its victory of it. A post-museum dinner at the 56th Fighter Group Restaurant provides the culinary cap to it.

4. Bayport Aerodrome Living Aviation Museum

The Bayport Aerodrome Living Aviation Museum, created by the Bayport Aerodrome Society to preserve and present early-20th century aviation at a representative turf airport, is a 24-hangar complex of privately owned antique and experimental aircraft located at Bayport Aerodrome.

The aerodrome, three miles southeast of Long Island MacArthur Airport, is a nontowered field with a single, 150-foot-wide by 2,740-foot-long grass/turf runway (18-36) and 45 based single-engine aircraft. Of its average 28 daily movements, 98 percent are local, with the remainder transient. Designated Davis Field from 1910 to 1952, it had then been renamed Edwards Airport until 1977, whereafter it had been acquired by the Town of Islip. On January 22, 2008, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a feat proudly proclaimed by its plaque, which reads: “Bayport Aerodrome. Only L.I. public airport w/ grass runways. National Historic status 2008.”

Formed in 1972 for the very purpose of preserving such an era, the Bayport Aerodrome Society conducts complementary tours on weekends between June and September of its operational aircraft collection, which includes Piper Cubs, Waco biplanes, N2S Stearmans, Fleet Model 16Bs, Byrds, and PT-22s. There is also a small museum.

5. Grand Old Airshow

The Grand Old Airshow, first held in 2006 at Brookhaven’s Calabro Airport, was created to transport spectators to earlier, biplane and World War II eras and showcase Long Island aviation.

Calabro Airport itself is a 600-acre, nontowered, municipal field which was constructed during the Second World War to provide logistical support for the Army Air Corps, but was acquired by the Town of Brookhaven in 1961, whose Division of General Aviation now operates it. The field, sporting two runways-4,200-foot Runway 6-24 and 4,224-foot Runway 15-33-is home to three fixed-base operators which offer tie-down pads, T-hangars, conventional hangars, flight instruction, and refueling, as well as Eastern Suffolk Boces, the Dowling College School of Aviation, the Long Island Soaring Association, and Island Aerial Air. There is a small terminal with a luncheonette. Of its 217 based aircraft, some 92 percent encompass single-engine types, and it averages 370 daily, or 135,100 yearly, movements.

The airshow entices the visitor by urging him to “join us this year as we go back in time to celebrate Long Island’s Golden Age of Aviation,” a time when “biplanes graced the skies decades ago.” It continues by offering the experience of “bygone days of aviation, as World War I dogfights, open-cockpit biplanes, World War II fighters, and, of course, the famous Geico Skytypers, soar through Long Island’s blue skies.”

Previous shows have featured antique vehicles and static aircraft displays, the latter encompassing TBM Avengers, Fokker Dr-1s, Nieuports, and Messerschmidt Me-109s, while aerial stunts have included comedy maneuvers performed in Piper J-3 Cubs by “randomly chosen” audience member Carl Spackle; Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome-borrowed Delsey Dives and balloon bursts targeted by Great Lakes Speedsters, Fleet 16Bs, and PT-17 Stearmans; speed races between runway-bound motorcycles and airborne, low-passing PT-17s; aerobatics by SF-260s; and skywriting by Sukhoi 29s.

A Sikorsky UH-34D Sea Horse Marine helicopter, used for combat rescue in Vietnam, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and by NASA during the Project Mercury astronaut recovery program, demonstrated search-and-rescue procedures.

Both Long Island aviation and formation flying are well represented. Past shows have featured Byrd, N3N, Fleet Model 16B, and N2S Stearman aircraft from the Bayport Aerodrome Society; P-40 Warhawks and P-51 Mustangs from Warbirds over Long Island; F4U Corsairs from the American Airpower Museum; and North American SNJ-2s from the Republic Airport-based Geico Skytypers.

Vintage vehicle and aircraft rides are available. Spectators bring their own lawn chairs and line them up next to the active runway. There is period dress and speeches are given by Tuskegee Airmen. Concession trucks sell everything from hot dogs to ice cream and souvenirs and numerous aviation-related schools and associations man booths.

The Grand Old Airshow, held in the fall, is a single-day, single-visit, outdoor glimpse toward the sky where Long Island’s multi-faceted aviation history was written and where it is now recreated.

6. Grumman Memorial Park

Grumman Memorial Park, located on a one-acre site of the former Grumman Aerospace Flight Test Facility in Calverton only one thousand feet from one of its runways, is, according to its self-description, “a volunteer effort paying tribute to the incredible advances in aviation and space flight that took place on Long Island thanks to the teamwork of the employees of the Grumman Corporation. This dedicated band of people took aviation from the fight deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier to man’s first steps on the moon.”

Leroy Randle Grumman, the man behind this company’s name, had been born on January 4, 1895 and established the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation 35 years later, according to the park’s plaque “in a small garage in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. There and later in Valley Stream, Farmingdale, Bethpage, Calverton, and locations throughout the country, the company designed and produced innovative aircraft and spacecraft for both the military forces of the United States and the civilian market.” Incorporated in all these designs had been the company’s straightforward philosophy of “keep it simple…build it strong….make it work.”

Phase One of the park, completed on October 28, 2000, had been dedicated to “preserving the legacy of the Grumman Corporation (and) to the men and women who designed, built, and flew the aircraft and spacecraft that soared into the heavens and beyond.”

Centerpiece, mounted on a pedestal in a climbing profile, is an F-14A Tomcat. Powered by two 20,900 thrust-pound, afterburner-equipped Pratt and Whitney TF30-P-414A turbofans, the swing-wing, variable-geometry fighter, whose sweepback varies from 20 degrees in the forward to 68 degrees in the aft position, was the 331st such Tomcat airframe to roll off the nearby Calverton assembly line and first flew from the almost arm’s reach runway on July 6, 1979. Delivered two months later to the US Navy’s VF-101 Fighter Squadron in Oceana, Virginia, it carried 2,385 gallons of fuel, including that accommodated in two, 267-gallon external tanks, and had a 1,191-mile nonstop range. The Mach 2 aircraft had provided 25 years of service before being decommissioned, and had been one of 712 F-14s to have been produced between 1970 and 1992.

Surrounded by inscribed bricks, which comprise the “Walk of Honor,” the display has several interactive features, including a visitor-controlled audible recording of its story, sounds of an afterburner take off, and wing and tail light activation.

The second aircraft on display, part of the park’s Phase Two expansion, is the Grumman A-6E Intruder located on the other side of the small parking lot. Tracing its origins to its initial version, the A2F-1 which had first flown in 1960, it was one of 693 all-weather attack aircraft which were powered by two Pratt and Whitney J-52 P-8B turbojets and had maximum take off weights of 58,600 pounds. Operating at 42,400-foot ceilings, the 648-mph aircraft could deliver eight 500-pound bombs with pinpoint accuracy, and it could carry an entire arsenal of weapons, striking targets more than 500 miles from the aircraft carrier on which it had been based without the need for refueling. Production ceased in 1997.

Aside from the two aircraft themselves, displays include the original Calverton Plant 7 flagpole, a Bethpage Plant 14 guard booth, and a Bethpage runway section, along with its side light, from which every Grumman F6F Hellcat had taken off.

Also viewable is a Hughes AIM-54A Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile, an integral part of the F-14 Tomcat AWG-9 Weapon System. Featuring a 13-foot length and three-foot wingspan, the device had a 1,021-pound gross weight, of which its 132-pound warhead had been propelled by a solid rocket motor. Traveling at a speed of Mach 5, it had a 96-mile range. The F-14 could carry up to six such Phoenix missiles.

Grumman Memorial Park, a work-in-progress whose nine additional acres will eventually encompass a visitor center and other aircraft displays, offers an initial glimpse into Grumman’s superior military designs only yards from the factory which had hatched them.

7. Conclusion

Long Island’s six-decade aerial journey, which had begun on its Hempstead Plains in 1909 when Glenn Curtiss had first taken off in the Golden Flyer biplane and ended when the Lunar Module had first landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility in 1969, is expertly recounted by its world-class aviation sights.

Source by Robert Waldvogel

When writing and/or speaking about tea in Burma, or any other country for that matter, it is inevitable to depart on the journey into the realm of tea in China – in south-west China to be precise – for that is as I will explain in the following definitely from where tea is originally coming from.

The discussion on whether or not the history of Burmese tea and the drinking of tea in Burma have originated in China has probably more to do with at least some Bamars’/Burmans’ reluctance to admit that the origin of tea is China and that the drinking of tea was adopted by them later from the Shan, than with tea, tea drinking and tea culture itself. The facts are that tea both as plant and beverage was discovered and had become important part of Chinese and later Shan culture already at a time when no Bamar/Burman had ever set foot into what is nowadays Burma (since 1989 also called Myanmar).

In other words the first kingdom of the Bamar the ‘kingdom of Pagan’ (that was actually founded by the Pyu, and while we are at it, Anawrahta, the 42nd king of Pagan who is by the Bamar/Burman considered the founder of the 1st Burman kingdom was a Pyu, not a Bamar/Burman) did back then not exist what is already the definite answer to the question of the origin of tea, tea drinking and tea culture in Burma; Burma or any predecessor of it simply didn’t exist in or during the era in question, period. But why are there still people (not so many of them, though) who in the face of all facts and logic say that Burmese tea, tea drinking and tea culture are not originated in China? Short answer: Because the area that was in pre-Bamar time inhabited by the Shan is now laying partly within the far north east of Burma. However, that these areas are nowadays located within Burma’s boundaries does not necessarily mean that the exact area in which Camellia sinensis was initially found and from where it then spread to India, through all of south-east Asia and, finally, throughout the world lies within north-east Burma. It is possible but it is also possible that Camellia sinensis – translated from Latin into English the name means ‘Tea flower’ (camellia) ‘from China’ (sinensis) – has at a later point in time extended into the area now covered by the north-eastern part of Burma.

The book of tea is a book with many pages and chapters starting shrouded in the mist of myth and legend some time back in 3000 BC. There is even the concrete date 2725 BC mentioned what is linking the (accidental) discovery and the later drinking of tea to the Chinese emperor Shen Nung about who I will tell you more a bit later. No one really knows when it was that the drinking of tea (what back then was always green tea because it was unfermented also called unoxidised) began to become part of Chinese culture. That is why it cannot be within the scope of this article to (as interesting as this may be) deal with related myths, legends and folklore in order to reveal tea history’s secret of when and where this was and how it happened. The answer to this question will never be found anyway what means that it will for always remain hidden behind the curtain of legend. Therefore we have to find facts in the form of written records and archaeological finds that will give us tea related information we are looking for. And as far as that is concerned we do not have to search for long.

We are given the first reliable information in a Chinese encyclopaedia that was started to be compiled and written during the Han Dynasty sometime around 325 BC and further expanded from then on: its name is Erya also spelled Erh-ya. The author of the Erya is unknown but it is among scholars accepted that this have been disciples of Confucius. Here we find records letting us know that tea was already known and drunken at least at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty in 1046 BC, probably earlier. However, it is not specified whether it was tea brewed from camellia sinensis leaves and drunken for pleasure or some herbal probably not very delicious tea drunken for medical purposes only.

From later records we know that brewing and drinking tea was already part of the Chinese people’s everyday life at the beginning of the Han Dynasty in 206 B.C. or even earlier. That the drinking of tea has so relatively quick permeated the Chinese culture would certainly not have been possible without Buddhist monks. It was the Buddhist monk orders that have not only spread the drinking of tea among the population but that had also taken over the planting and processing of tea. Soon after tea as beverage had been introduced during the Han Dynasty, Buddhism was associated with tea. The Buddhist monks have very early recognised that tea was a cheap and refreshing beverage with good taste and fragrance that kept them awake.

From the by Lu Yu during the Tang Dynasty written and at about 760 AD published book ‘The Classic of Tea’ (Cha Jing in Chinese) we can take that green tea was known and drunken throughout all of China for pleasure from 618 AD, or earlier on. For Lu Yu tea was the symbol of harmony and mysterious unity of the Universe from which we can see how highly he thought of tea.

A sensational discovery would (at the time of this writing in 2016) 1255 years later prove Lu Yun wrong in so far as green tea was already a popular beverage in south and west China earlier than 141 BC. The a.m. sensational discovery was that it was proven that leaves found in the tomb of the 6th Emperor of the western Han Dynasty, Emperor Jin of Han (Liu Qi), where actual (Camellia sinensis) tea leaves that were given him along with thousands of clay soldiers and many other things as grave good for the journey into his afterlife. To avoid confusion, the emperor’s tomb was already discovered in the 1990s during road construction work, which in itself (not the road construction but the discovery of the Emperor’s tomb) was a world sensation. However, with respect to the contents of this article the finding of the tea leaves was even more sensational because these tea leaves are the most ancient and finest tea leaves ever discovered what has earned them an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as ‘The world’s oldest tea leaves’.

As with so many other things the beginning of drinking tea is steeped in legend. There are different stories about how the first chapter of the book of tea begins and having read them I have come to the conclusion that 99.99 percent of them belong into the realm of legends. One of the most popular Chinese legends is the with great pleasure again and again told legend about an emperor’s pot of hot water that happened to be placed exactly under a tea tree where tea leaves were sure to drop into the pot. Naturally, oh wonder (how could it be any different) tea leaves fell into the pot with boiling water whereupon the emperor took out of curiosity a sip of the previously unknown now slightly yellowish-brown coloured water. He was, as the legend goes, so excited about the fragrance and taste that from then on he made tea his favourite beverage and the drinking of tea became part of Chinese culture. The emperor in this legend is the mythological emperor Shen Nung also spelled Shannong, Shen Nong who is by the Chinese worshipped as the ‘Divine Farmer’ and the ‘Father of Chinese Herbal Medicine’. He was what is nowadays called ‘pharmacologist’, and it is believed that he has ‘lived’ 140 years, from 2838 BC to 2698 BC. This is no doubt all pure legend but its origin might be seen against the backdrop of the fact that Shen Nung was herbalist and that tea was at the beginning used as herbal medicine in both solid (as vegetable or salad) and/or liquid form (as tea).

What is tea and where is it originated? Briefly put, tea is a beverage commonly comprising of water and natural (uncured) and cured tea leaves of the species camellia sinensis. This is, as previously said, an evergreen shrub native to Asia that can when it remains untouched grow in the wilderness into a tree with a height of some 55 ft/ 17 m. By the way, why do we call tea, tea? Let me briefly explain where the name ‘tea’ originated and from where it spread around the world. The name ‘tea’ has its origin in China where 2 names are used for the same beverage. It is called ‘Cha’ in Mandarin dialect and ‘Tay’ in Xiamenese dialect. In 1644 the British established a trading post in Xiamen and anglicised the Xiamenese ‘tay’ what, subsequently, became ‘tea’ a name that in the following time quickly spread through and was accepted by the English speaking world.

Where exactly is Camellia sinensis originated? As unbelievable as it sounds and whatever we might think about it, extensive and detailed research has led to the result that this tea plant – the Camellia sinensis – was not a plant that had or could have evolved and grown independently in several parts of the world but astonishingly enough only within a relatively small area located in and confined to a region that does include parts of what is nowadays the Shan state (as north and north-eastern part of the back then not existing Burma) and the Chinese provinces Yunnan and Sichuan.

But whether ‘Burmese’ tea has its origin in China (what it has) or not, or whether or not the drinking of tea became part of the Burman’s culture only after it was introduced to them by the Shan (what it was) or whether or not the famous ‘Burmese milk tea is actually Indian tea introduced by the Indian – and NOT British – people during British colonial times (what it was and is) does really not matter much – if anything at all – because the fact remains that ‘tea’ has over time (trough all the Bamar/Burman kingdoms, the British colonial times and the past-independence time) developed into an integral part of the so-called ‘Burmese drink and food culture’ what it remains to be to this day and will always be wherewith I have now ‘beamed’ us from the ancient past into the present.

Prior to our arrival at one of the many Burmese tea shops in Yangon – no joke, they are literally at every corner, what is true for every place with more than two houses in all of Burma – to enjoy a cup or two of the famous ‘Burmese Milk Tea’ and one of the delicious Burmese tea leave salads called ‘Lahpet Thoke’ at the end of this article let us start at the beginning, by briefly answering questions such as, where tea is growing within the boundaries of present-day Burma, what kind of tea it is, how it is processed after being plugged, of what quality Burmese tea is compared to the qualities of e.g. China, India and other Asian countries, and so on.

Where is tea grown in Burma?

In Burma more than 80 percent of the cultivated tea is grown in the Shan state located in north-eastern and eastern part of Burma. Namhsan, Kyaukme, Namkham, Kutkai, Kalaw, Yatsouth, Mong Hsu and Mong Tone townships in Shan State are the major tea growing areas.

What kind of tea is grown in Burma?

In Burma are almost exclusively grown Camellia sinensis, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis and Camellia var. assamica. Camellia assamica is extending into Burma from Assam/India in the west and Camellia sinensis from south-west and east China.

Quite recently I have read somewhere in a magazine an article that was as far as I can remember promoting Burmese tea in the context of which ‘Camellia irrawadiensis’ was mentioned as a tea species native to and grown in Burma. In case you should also read something like that I want you to know that ‘Camellia irrawadiensis’ with its blossoms comprising of white petals, a yellow centre (pretty much like ‘giant’ buttercup flowers) and dark green leaves may be nice to look at in the garden but it is nothing for the tea cup because ‘Camellia irrawadiensis’ Is a so-called ‘Non-tea’ tea. This means that the total absence of caffeine in ‘Camellia irrawadiensis’ and a very unfavourable biochemical composition does not allow the plant to produce any liquid that comes even near a quality that would pass as tea.

What is plugged from the tea plants and when is it done?

Tea harvesting time is roughly from April to November. However, the leaves plucked in the first 2 weeks of April are of best quality. This because in April the harvesting time is beginning and the first leaves known as ‘spring tea’ (in Burmese ‘shwe phi oo’) are those fetching the highest prices.

As far as plucking also called picking is concerned there are two methods, which are ‘fine plucking’ and ‘rough plucking’. Fine plucking means that only two leaves and the bud, what is called a ‘flush,’ are plucked and in rough plucking an entire sprig with between 2 and 5 leaves. The average amount a tea plucker is plucking and placing in his/her basket is about 25 kg. After being plucked the tea leaves are collected and partly dried and left unoxidised as green tea and partly send to the tea factory for being processed into black tea. Most of the produced tea in Burma is sold as green tea and consumed domestically.

How is the Burmese tea processed after being plugged?

Once the tea has arrived in the tea factory the tea leaves are processed into oolong (withered and partly oxidised) and black tea (withered and fully oxidised) in the following order: withering, rolling, roll-breaking and the final step is oxidisation.

Of what quality is Burmese tea compared to the qualities of other Asian countries?

Compared to the quality of the tea grown in other countries such as China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and India Burmese tea is of lesser quality although other countries are using more fertiliser and pesticides.

What role does Burma play in the global tea production and trade?

The Burmese tea industry is by and large a cottage industry. This means large areas of tea plantations are distributed among a large number of tea growers often in areas of about 50 hectare/125-acre that are owned by families since many generations. The local tea industry is poorly organised and the tea growers’ and workers’ professional expertises are rather low. Additionally, the infrastructure is very poor and machinery and technical equipment of tea factories are hopelessly outdated and storage facilities are extremely unsuitable for tea. As if this would not be bad enough many areas are strewn with land mines and cannot be crossed because of heavy fighting between ethnic armed groups and the tatmadaw (Burma’s army) so that tea farmers and workers are exposed to great danger. In consequence of the deplorable overall situation the country’s tea production is low and steadily declining and the tea export is of negligible quantity. In the global tea production and trade Burma does therefore presently not play any role at all. See for yourself. Burma had in 2015 a total tea production of some 60.000 tons. Of these were exported 2.800 tons. Here are the tea export figures from neighbouring tea producing and exporting countries: India (900,094 tons), China (1,000,130 tons), Sri Lanka (295,830 tons), Vietnam (116,780 tons). I think these figures speak for themselves.

However, there is huge potential for Burma’s tea in the international tea producing and trade market once quantities, qualities and global tea promotion are improved and the civil war has ended what will conservatively estimated take at the very least 4 to 5 more years. Personally, I fear it will be at least about 10 years till there will be real, constant peace in all tea growing border regions, which by the by would also contribute greatly to the solving of the drug problem in which more than just a few tea grower are involved because they are growing poppy at least on the side as source of additional income; but that is a different story.

Where did present day Burma’s milk tea recipe originate?

Burma’s milk tea recipes are of Indian origin.

Where did present day Burma’s tea salad ‘Lahpet Thoke’ recipe originate?

Burma’s famous pickled tea leave salad (Lahpet Thoke) may have its origin in what is now Burma but this cannot be said without any doubt because in China tea leaves were already eaten as salad or vegetable in 2000 B.C.

So, as promised we will from the historical as well as growing and processing part of the story of tea enter tomorrow morning into Yangon’s tea shop scene and enjoy a cup or two of the famous ‘Burmese Milk Tea’ and one of the delicious Burmese tea leaf salads called ‘Lahpet Thoke’ within the unique atmosphere of Burmese tea shops. See you tomorrow morning.

OK, it’s 08:00 am, the employees who make paratha, samosa, nambia, etc. are about to stop frying and the shop is still bustling with guests. But do not worry they have prepared enough on stock to be sold later; we will not need to starve.

After a good night’s sleep we are here now, seated on the for authentic Burmese tea shops so typical low plastic chairs at the equally low plastic tables with a hole for the post of a sunshade (umbrella for outside use) in its centre and placed next to it a plastic container with a role of tissue paper, a plastic bowl with a bit of water and three or four small tea cups in it and a small plastic container with single cigarettes. Additionally, there are small electrical fans fastened to the wall as well as slowly whirling colonial style ceiling fans. All of this is tea shop standard in all of Burma and that what makes up the ‘Burmese tea shop style’.

As you can see, there is nothing in the way of fancy about a tea shop; it never is. Always the same more or less old and/or clean furniture, often old placards with landscape and pagoda motives accompanied by beer advertisements taped to the in turquoise painted walls, a Buddha statue accompanied by fresh water and food offerings, flowers and joss sticks in a glass showcase attached to the wall at a height of about 8 ft/2.6 m and sometimes a small wastepaper basket at each table.

Like practically all tea shops this one too is family owned and it is now operated in the second generation with the third one already in waiting. Let’s order our tea, and whatever you may desire to eat. You can choose between e.g. e char kway (fried Chinese bread sticks), thayar paratha (thin and flat multi layer bread with sugar, origin India), pe-byohk paratha (thin and flat multi layer bread with steamed or boiled peas, origin India), samosa (a paper-thin deep fried dough sheet filled with mashed or finely chopped potato, green peas, onions, cumin and coriander powder, cumin seed, masala and – if not for vegetarian – with different kinds of minced meat (chicken, pork, beef, etc. that is folded into a for samosa very typical triangular shape to cover the filling, origin India), spring rolls (rolled deep-fried paper-thin wrapper made from wheat flour filled with a mixture of finely chopped bean curt, onions, shrimps, beans, carrots and spices, origin China) and some sweet pastry such as buns with sweet red or yellow bean paste filling. You can also have fried rice (thamin kyaw) or fried noodles (kaukswe kyaw); up to you, make your pick.

As for tea you can now take some of the thin Chinese green tea (Yay nui yea) from that thermo on the table (it’s free; the tea, not the thermo) and then order a cup of the famous Burmese tea lahpet yea cho (strong black tea with condensed milk (no si) and sugar (thayar). By the by, the ‘professional’ way of drinking the thin Chinese tea is to pour a bit of tea from the thermo into the cup, swirl it two, three times around inside the cup and then to pour it on the ground. Does this help to clean the cup? I suggest you take additionally a piece of the tissue paper and clean the brim and inside of the cup properly, that will do the job. With our fermented tea leaf salad (Lahpet) we will have to wait because that is not served so early in the morning. I will later go and ask. So having ordered and been served it’s time to start our breakfast.

While we are sitting, drinking tea and eating let me tell you a bit more about this tea shop, in particular, and other tea shops in general. After all this is not a fast food restaurant but a tea shop (more properly phrased tea and food shop) and here you need time to enjoy the typical taste of strong black tea, water, evaporated and/or condensed milk and sugar combined, the delicious food and the wonderful atmosphere to the full; back home you do not have something like this.

This shop is like most other authentic and traditional Burmese tea and food shops open from 06:00 am to 10:00 pm but preparation work in the kitchen starts already at 04:00 am. Business is buzzing from about 07:00 am to 09:00 am at breakfast time and from about 06:00 pm to a few minutes after 10:00 pm when the shop is closing. During breakfast time and in the evening the shop is always crowded, especially when there are interesting football games. Burmese are football crazy. During office hours the shop is – with exception of lunchtime (from about 11:00 am to 12:00 noon) when employees from companies in the neighbourhood are coming – almost empty.

I know tea shops from all over the country. There are, of course, differences in e.g. size, numbers of tables and range of food items offered. Some are just bamboo huts (in suburbs and country side) and some are in the ground floor apartments of better stone/brick buildings (larger villages, towns and cities) but they are all tea shops with the same atmosphere; it’s like you know one you know them all. Well, and I like to sit in them from the time of my arrival in this beautiful country 26 years ago. I love the many different sounds from the shop and the exterior environment that mingle into the cacophony I call typical ‘tea shop’ sound. It always reminds me on one of the Neil Diamond songs I grew up with: ‘What a beautiful noise’.

During the 26 years I am regularly visiting my favourite and (depending on where I am) other tea shops nothing that is of significance has change on the part of the tea shops; they do now than ever look basically the same, offer basically the same food and beverages as well as cigarettes and have the same important social function in and for the life of communities. There is a lot of chatter, gossip, exchanging of information, breaking news, dealing, haggling, laughing and fun. And it is the typical tea shop ambience that draws the people into the tea shops; the drinking of tea is of subordinated significance. And, by the way, tea is mostly drunk for breakfast and in lesser quantities during daytime; in the evening it’s mostly beer and liquor that the tea shop guests are drinking. That is why I say that in my opinion Burma has more a ‘tea shop’ culture than a ‘tea culture’. At home or work the people do not drink much tea. There they drink mostly plain drinking water, soft drinks, and instant coffee.

We have now also finished our tasty lahpet thoke and leave the tea shop. Hope you have enjoyed the article and that I have succeeded in bringing the world of Burmese tea and tea shops a bit closer to you.

Source by Markus Burman

It does not need to be difficult to throw a 50th birthday party. Yet this is a very important occasion and you want the party to be special. Here is a step by step plan, which makes throwing a 50th birthday party easy, fun and memorable.

First you need to decide on your budget. This is where most people make their big mistake planning a party. They start off with great ideas, make commitments and then find half way through they run out of money and have to start cutting corners. Decide on how much you can spend first.

Next, consider the guest of honor. Is this a fun loving person or are they low key? Will they be okay with a big bash with lots of guests, a surprise party or just want a simple, quiet event?

Considering the guest of honor, decide on your theme. This will be very important and everything happens after this decision is made. Ideas for themes that are very popular at 50th birthday parties include: A Casino Night, Mexican Fiesta, Hawaiian Luau, Memory Lane, A Roast, A Formal Black and White Party, A Beer or Wine Tasting Party, A Murder Mystery Party, A Fifties Sock Hop or Grease Party (yes even adults like this!).

Perhaps you would like to have the event at a fun location-a baseball or football game, a horse racing track, soccer match or basketball event. Again keep in mind what the guest of honor enjoys.

You can rent a limo and have a dine-around where you visit different restaurants. Visit a different location for appetizers, the main course, dessert and then perhaps dancing at the end.

Once your theme has been selected, you need to decide where it will be held. Will you use your own home, that of a friend, a rented location or a public area, like a park?

Now it is time to design the 50th birthday party invitations. There are lots of templates you can find online and do them yourself or visit a local printer who will do a very professional job for you.

It is time to decide on your guests. If this is not a surprise party, it is always best to ask the guest of honor who they want to invite. Depending on your theme, you may want to keep in mind inviting people that will all interact well together.

Think now about how the food and drinks will be handled. Will you as the host be handling this or will you have it catered. What will your food and drink choices be?

It is a good idea to draw a small map out on where everything will be situated for the party. Identify locations for the bar, the food, dancing, and entertainment. Think about your room and flow so everything works.

Do you need to rent equipment like chairs, tables, bar, dance floor? Find the right suppliers early that will fit your budget. Make sure they are reliable and check their references.

Will you be having entertainment or games for the guests? Think about how this will work at the party and make any arrangements in advance that will be necessary.

Decide on what you will be using for decorations and where you can buy them for the best price. Purchase them early and don’t wait until the last minute. If the party is at night and outside be sure to keep in mind proper lighting and even the need for heaters if it will be cool.

Finally, think through the day of the event and put together a list of what needs to happen. Do this several days before the party. Leading up to the start of the party you can check off each item as it is completed.

Follow these steps and your 50th birthday party is certain to be the most fun and memorable event ever.

Source by Mark S Myers

This might seem like a pretty strange comparison to you, but bean bag chair shopping can be a lot like fast food restaurants. You do not go to Burger King to order their random featured item, like tacos, or to an Italian restaurant to get their one featured Chinese entrée. Let’s be honest here, the people who know what they are talking about, and the people who serve the best product, are the people who invest their entire company or business in the product.

Bean bags should only be purchased at a bean bag chair store for this very reason. It is a very important investment that you are making, and it can be a very smooth transaction if you just go to people who know what they are talking about. At a bean bag chair store you are guaranteed to talk to people who have legitimate answers to your questions, who have experience with the product, and who can help guide and direct you to the perfect bag for your needs. Purchasing bean bags from any other dealer who does not specialize in the business is not likely to have a good quality product with warranties and benefits that you would normally get, and you will have a much more limited selection. Your questions will find answers and your satisfaction and expectations will be met if you just purchase your sack at the right store. Being confidant in the company and where you get your product is a service that is priceless and necessary to feel completely satisfied with your decision.

Source by Tyson Ellis

Sometimes there is an ordinary kind of event that happens that can turn into a story. You’ve had this happen many times. Perhaps someone does something kind for you, or you do something for someone else. Maybe someone makes a remark that you remember.

These are stories that can be fun to remember and fun to write. They don’t need to be long, but provide a glimpse, like a window when the shade goes up. You could try remembering one and writing it down right now.

One such story comes to mind for me.

One Saturday afternoon I came home from the coffee shop thinking that I would get some work done on my garden. On the way, I passed a garage sale where they had some wonderful old wicker chairs out. I bought them. My neighbor was standing out in his driveway and I showed them to him because the two side chairs needed some repairs. He thought that he could take a look.

Later I went in and had some lunch, trying out one of the chairs with arms on the back patio. It felt lived in. The wicker is chipped white. It felt like lots of people had relaxed in that chair. The fellow who sold them to me said as much, “I’ve enjoyed many an afternoon in those chairs,” he told me.

After I brought my dishes to the sink, I went outside to tackle my hedge. It has gotten out of control. I had to reach up with my trusty hedge trimmer way over my head to bring it down some. Quickly the hedge cuttings were piling up around my feet. I bored a hole through, so you could walk down the sidewalk again without having to fight your way through a thicket of privet.

When I was done, I stood back in the street to take a look. My neighbor came over. He was done with the chairs. “Well,” I said, “what do you think?” He paused and stood back looking at the hedge.

“I wouldn’t want you to ever give me a haircut,” he remarked.

Source by Margaret Randall

Buying Massage Therapy Tables and chairs for your practice is usually the biggest expense that you’ll have setting up shop and starting your own practice. You already know how to shop for these pieces of equipment, but do you know how to store them? Storing them properly is important in order to make sure that your expensive equipment stays in great condition.

Because buying equipment is so expensive it’s a good idea to get yourself in the habit of taking care of those tables and chairs and storing them properly from the beginning. If you do that you can keep your expensive equipment operating well and looking great for years to come. Here are some tips from experienced massage therapists that you can use to keep your massage tables and chairs in top shape:

Wipe Them Off Every Time

Even if your Massage Therapy Tables is just going into storage overnight or until your next client appointment and even if you ordinarily wipe the table down after every client you should wipe it off before it goes into storage. Use a baby wipe or a makeup removal wipe to make sure there are no stains on the upholstery and to wipe dust off the legs and bottom of the table. Folding table especially should be wiped off frequently. If dust builds up in the folding mechanism the table could stop working as well as it should, so make sure you wipe down the folding mechanism.

Cover them

Furniture covers or even old sheets can be great protectors for Massage Therapy Tables and chairs. Covering the table will help keep dust, dirt and debris off the equipment. It will also prevent fading of the upholstery or pad on top of the table. If you use colored pads or linens make sure that they are also stored in a place where they won’t end up becoming faded. Stationary tables should be covered every evening when they are not being used.

Remove The Accessories

If you’re not using the table take off arm rests, the head rest, steps, or other accessories to prevent unnecessary wear and tear. Store the accessories in a nylon bag or in a plastic case to keep them from getting dirty and to keep the covers clean and inviting. To keep the padded covers from smelling badly put an herbal sachet in the storage bag or sprinkle some fresh herbs in the case.

Source by Jayne Pleysier

Staging your home is Marketing 101. You want your house to stand out from everyone else’s. Staged homes sell faster and for more money. So, consider the small expense of staging to be an investment, not a cost. Many realtors stage homes for their clients by suggesting that they repaint, remove window treatments, and get rid of clutter. Effective staging, however, involves much more than that. It’s selecting the right “props,” getting rid of furniture and other items that make the space look cluttered and smaller. It’s also about adding finishing touches that produce an appealing look and creating focal points in the main living areas.

A properly staged home shows the home’s possibilities and potential, creates an inviting space to inspire potential buyers, and generates a mood befitting the home (inside and outside).

Remember… First Impressions are Lasting Impressions

Potential buyers will size up your home before they even enter. If your home lacks curb appeal, many prospective buyers will reject it without looking further or will try to lowball you on price. Here are a few tips to turn browsers into buyers:

• Paint the house if paint is peeling or looking dull.

• Display easy-to-read house numbers.

• Mow the lawn and trim the shrubs.

• Wash the windows.

• Power wash siding and walkways.

• Make any repairs that make the outside of the house look unappealing.

• Be sure the doorbell works.

• Select a doormat that compliments the architecture and color of your house. (One that says Welcome” works, but monograms and team doormats don’t).

• Remove garbage bins and anything else that may be unsightly. (As obvious as that sounds, I’ve seen that many times.)

Sure the Foyer is Appealing

The foyer is the first space potential buyer will see once they enter your home. Add color through artwork, place fresh/silk flowers, or a table lamp on a hall table, and lay a gorgeous area rug down to add warmth and interest. Don’t forget scent. Have a dish with potpourri or lay an incense stick on the ledge over the door trim. If you don’t have a foyer, you can create a sense of entrance by placing an interesting chair or small table near the front door.

Get Rid of the Clutter

Once you decide to sell your home, it’s really no longer your home. Think of it as a commodity. Get rid of the clutter. The major contributors to a cluttered look are too much furniture, too many knickknacks, too many family photos, too many items on the walls, and too many things on the refrigerator door. Take a hard look at what you have, and ask yourself what you can live without. You can always rent temporary storage for large items you need to remove but will want to use in your next dwelling. And if you won’t use those items, discard them. There are many organizations that will be glad to get them.

Add Some Interesting, Colorful Accessories

This doesn’t contradict removing clutter. For example, after you’ve removed the small appliances, canister set, and recipe books from your countertops, place a colorful bowl of fruit on the center island, put a place setting at the table or counter, or place some colorful bottles of cooking oil with a cookbook on a bookstand. This will make the kitchen look like a cozy place to gather.

Play Musical Chairs

Consider moving furniture, artwork, and accessories into other rooms. Just because you bought that armchair for the family room doesn’t mean it won’t look great anchoring a sitting area in your bedroom. And the hope chest at the foot of your bed may make a lovely piece in a hallway or foyer. Try refinishing the piece to give it a fresh, new look.

Make Your Dining Room Appear Larger

Remove a leaf and use fewer chairs to make the dining room look larger. Consider putting a colorful runner on the table but not a table cloth (which will make the room appear smaller). And if you have nice hardwood flooring, show it off instead of having an area rug.

Paint for Larger-Looking Rooms

If you want to make a room appear larger, paint it the same color as the adjacent rooms. This creates a seamless look that will give the illusion of both rooms feeling like one larger space. For an even greater illusion, paint your walls the same color as your window treatment. Also, remove all the wallpaper.

Make Sure Each Room is Well Lit

Many homes have improper lighting, making them cold and unwelcoming. Increase the wattage in your lamps and fixtures, and use dimmers. Don’t depend on just one or two fixtures per room. Try to have a variety of lighting in each room: ambient lighting (overhead), task lighting (under cabinets or reading), and accent lighting (on tables and walls.) And when your house is being shown, make sure all the lights are on. This is especially true if you don’t have natural sunlight streaming in.

Raid Your Yard

Nicely staged homes usually have fresh flowers. Instead of buying them, pick them from your yard. Forsythias come out in the spring and make a cheery arrangement in a vase. Blazing fall foliage can warm up your décor on a chilly fall day. And holly branches (heavy with berries) will add holiday spirit during the cold winter months.

In conclusion… When potential buyers can see their family and friends lounging in the family room, relaxing and watching television, or sitting around for a candlelight dinner, they’ll think they found the holy grail. The next thing you’ll see on your front lawn is a sign that reads SOLD.

Source by Sheryl Roberts